Archive for the 'opportunity' Category

First Mover Advantage: When Copycat Doesn’t Work

Published on 1 February 2011 in Google, opportunity and web. 0 Comments

How perceptions of Being Bigger may not always play out in reality.

First Mover Advantage. A popular adage in this era of perennial web startups. Equally as strong has been the thought that established players – the big fish – can simply move in on the small fry’s niche patch and bring it to the mass market – the Free Rider effect.

Groupon is arguably a case in point. Out of nowhere the young gun from Chicago has been described as the world’s fastest growing company and a $6bn gamble, only for such heavyweights as Google and Facebook to begin to muscle in on it’s coupon territory, sensing their already huge ecosystems will at least make the new guy irrelevant.

This is the textbook case. What happens when the innovator is somewhat higher up the foodchain? We may be about to find out.

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Showtime In Londonderry

Published on 21 September 2010 in Belfast and opportunity. 0 Comments

A few thoughts on the creations unveiled at last week’s showcase show and tell conference in the Maiden City.

First up, the keynote from NYSE (who bought up NI startup Wombat Financial Software in Belfast). To be honest the corporate speak gave me flashbacks of what it’s like to work in that dreary environment. But 500 jobs isn’t to be sniffed at, and neither is their plans to create an API for 3rd party development to offer services based on their stock ticker platform. While it likely doesn’t go far enough – I’d like to see it made public so that independent programmer/traders like myself could start playing with it – it’s a step in that direction and is to be widely welcomed.

Not so welcome was the sole question for the guy, which wasn’t really a question at all – more a plea to help all the unemployed people around Derry (not to mention “6,000 on the dole in Inishowen”…) get jobs. That was the gist of it and it sounded desperately out of sync with a new outward-looking Northern Ireland unafraid to compete with the rest of the world on merit. Host for the day Mark Nagurski moulded it diplomatically into a question about why NYSE likes NI. Hooray.

Now the startups…

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Ecosystems and Cajoling Participants

Published on 8 September 2009 in Belfast, opportunity and Tech Labours. 0 Comments

revolutionBack in 2005, I used to work for what was then DrKW in their Digital Markets division. DM was their investment banking answer to the web buzz of the early 2000s. Sean Park, the head of the division, had made a personal killing on several tech floatation deals and had drank the digital koolaid. Ably assisted by an IT chief with a penchant for grand visions, he set about giving Dresdner’s corporate clients an investment banking answer to the consumer behemoths Betfair, Ebay, etc who were seemingly granting supernatural powers to anyone with an internet connection.

You can still view the Googlezon-inspired vision here. I left the bank a year later, but kept an eye on the Revolution platform. It failed miserably. The trouble was they were providing a great integrated digital service that no one in the city knew they wanted yet. Banking is a notoriously fickle industry, and change only happens when trusted relationships introduce it. Revolution’s newly recruited marketing team was manned with former developers, admin staff & inexperienced hires from other banks.

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Venture Capital Hits Belfast

Published on 30 April 2009 in opportunity and web. 0 Comments

Surprised I haven’t found comment on this anywhere yet so here is the gen dit:

  • The 30% of private funding requirement for the £5m VC fund can be from another investor
  • The Proof Of Concept fund is grant based as opposed to equity
  • They are in the process of collecting anchor startups for a first round of funding
  • Launch date is 1st of May.
  • They have already had a meetup with potential opportunities
  • Another one is planned in the next few weeks
  • E-Synergy is the firm running the show
  • It depends who answers their phone as to whether you’ll get any info.